He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.
Parallel translations
- WEB He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
- BSB He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.
- NKJV He will not allow me to catch my breath, But fills me with bitterness.
- NASB “He will not allow me to get my breath, But He saturates me with bitterness.
- NLT He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job says God will not even let him catch his breath but fills him with bitterness. His suffering is relentless and saturating.
Overview
Job feels granted no respite, his life flooded with bitterness at every turn. The relentlessness of his trial leaves no room to recover. This honest expression of overwhelming grief shows that faith does not require pretending all is well; Scripture makes space for the suffering to voice their pain to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 7:19How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
- Lam 3:15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- Job 27:2As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
- Heb 12:11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
- Lam 3:18–19And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
- Ps 39:13O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
- Ps 88:7Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
- Ps 88:15–18I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
- Job 3:20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
- Lam 3:3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 9:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.